Whether it’s regarded as the last year before a World Cup, the first year after Beckham or simply 2013, the coming 12 months will be big for key players, coaches and administrators in American soccer. Sporting News takes a look at who needs to come up big:

Jurgen Klinsmann

Klinsmann has had 17 months to tinker, scheme and instill his tactics and values in the American player pool. Now, the U.S. national team coach must deliver a squad that can come away from World Cup qualifiers in places like Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica with points while he begins to fashion a roster that can compete in Brazil in 2014. No figure in American soccer will be under a brighter spotlight in 2013.

Landon Donovan

The L.A. Galaxy captain, who also happens to be the national team’s all-time leading scorer, has tired of that spotlight and says he needs a break, the length of which he hasn’t announced.

Donovan’s decision will have a huge impact on his club, which has an MLS Cup title to defend and might have to sign a DP replacement if the 30-year-old chooses to retire or take a lengthy sabbatical. It also will play a role in how Klinsmann plans for qualifying.

There aren’t many pundits who think Donovan will retire. Immediately following the Galaxy’s MLS Cup triumph Dec. 1, he flew to Las Vegas to participate in meetings with the MLS Players Union. That’s not the sort of behavior one might expect from someone eager to disengage completely and with club and country still depending on him.

American center backs

No position is more unsettled, or more critical, for Klinsmann as he heads toward both the Hexagonal and this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Can U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra, who turns 34 in May, hold on to a starting role until the World Cup? Will Geoff Cameron, playing in several positions at Stoke City, emerge as a consistent international central defender? Are Clarence Goodson and Oguchi Onyewu finally past their national team peaks? Will Tim Ream or Jay DeMerit ever earn another chance? Is Maurice Edu, who performed well in the August win at the Estadio Azteca, an option?

Perhaps they’re all competing for the spot next to the one soon to be claimed by MLS Cup MVP Omar Gonzalez. Perhaps another MLS player like Matt Besler will emerge. It’s a mystery at the moment. By this time next year, it can’t be.

Timmy Chandler

At some point in mid-January, assuming Chandler is healthy, Klinsmann will call the FC Nürnberg defender and confirm his participation in the Feb. 6 World Cup qualifier in Honduras. Until now, Chandler has dodged any call-up that might permanently tie him to the U.S. and has participated only in exhibitions. It’s time for the 22-year-old defender, who said in November that he “finally feel(s) ready to make the commitment,” to follow through.

Don Garber

It wouldn’t be too hard to make a case as 2013 dawns that Garber is the best commissioner in North American pro sports. On his plate this year: Securing the New York City stadium and franchise, growing TV ratings, convincing owners to spend more on player development while pushing laggards like Chivas USA and the New England Revolution to get their acts together. MLS must enter 2014 with momentum -- it’s the final year of its TV contracts and its collective bargaining agreement with the players’ union.

Jorge Vergara

Speaking of Chivas USA, the blustery businessman who owns MLS’ most consistently vexing and underperforming club is betting big that Mexican leadership can reverse its flagging fortunes on and off the field.

Only one of the 17 previous MLS champions was coached by a foreigner with no previous experience playing or managing in the U.S. (the 2010 Colorado Rapids, which had an American technical director). Vergara is staking Chivas USA’s financial and competitive future on men with ties to the parent club in Guadalajara, including recently appointed head coach José Luis Sanchéz Solá, who doesn’t speak much English.

If the new regime fails, then Vergara’s fitness as an MLS owner must come into question.

Jérôme de Bontin and Andy Roxburgh

It’s 17 years and counting without a major trophy for the New York Red Bulls, who enter 2013 with a new G.M. (de Bontin) and sporting director (Roxburgh) but no new head coach. De Bontin does have experience with the business side of American soccer, unlike his Chivas USA counterparts, but Roxburgh has spent his entire career in Europe.

While Roxburgh has to hire a bench boss who can help mold the right supporting cast for Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill, De Bontin must build the Red Bull brand in a market somewhat soured by nearly two decades of on-field frustration. Falling attendance and the potential 2016 arrival of a New York City expansion team will turn up the heat.

Erick Thohir and Jason Levien

D.C. United’s new owners took over during the summer and promised progress toward a new stadium. Instead, the biggest news coming out of RFK (besides the team’s stirring run to the Eastern Conference finals) was the postseason purge of several front office originals, including president/CEO Kevin Payne and executive vice president Stephen Zack.

The new owners haven’t commented on the changes, and both have competing interests. But it’s clearly now Thohir’s and Levien’s show. It won’t be long before they’ll owe one of the league’s most patient fan bases a positive progress report.

Caleb Porter

Celebrated for his commitment to attacking soccer and player development at the University of Akron and hammered for his failure with the U.S. Under-23 national team, Porter, 37, is leaving the safety of the college game behind to coach the Portland Timbers.

He must find the right balance between his stylistic ideals and professional pragmatism relatively quickly, while demonstrating that he learned a few lessons about game and roster management during the Olympic qualifying debacle. Both Portland’s rabid fan base and those wondering whether the American college game still can mold future pro coaches will be watching Porter’s progress closely.

Brek Shea

No American player’s star fell further in the past year than Shea’s, who finished 2011 as an MLS MVP finalist, favorite of Klinsmann and Arsenal trainee and then suffered through a miserable 2012.

Injuries and inconsistency weighed on the 22-year-old winger, who was suspended for kicking a ball at an official and criticized publicly by FC Dallas captain Daniel Hernandez after lashing out at coach Schellas Hyndman. In late November, Klinsmann lamented the absence of full-time reserve teams in MLS because the option “to put Brek Shea in line doesn’t exist at Dallas.”

There will be opportunities for Shea in ’13, when he’ll be expected to lead Dallas back to the playoffs and play a role either in World Cup qualifying or the Gold Cup. It is up to him to seize them.

Eddie Johnson

The hard-luck striker engineered a remarkable return to prominence in 2012, scoring 17 goals for the Seattle Sounders and earning his way back onto the national team for October’s World Cup qualifiers. He then scored both goals in the critical 2-1 victory over Antigua and Barbuda.

In 2013, Johnson won’t take anyone by surprise. He’ll have to handle the weight of a different kind of expectation, maintain his focus and remain comfortable with his relatively low salary during a busy year set to include competition on three fronts with Seattle and international duty with the U.S.

Johnson struggled following strong seasons previously. Now a marked man, he must demonstrate long-term, game-breaking consistency for the first time in a roller-coaster career.

Freddy Adu

Adu’s first full season with the Philadelphia Union was another frustrating exercise for a player continuing to chase his potential. Flashes of brilliance were followed by ineffectiveness and occasional indifference that drew criticism from Union coach John Hackworth, who said at the conclusion of the season that “there is a chance Freddy will be back.”

The coming year could be a make-or-break one for the 23-year-old attacking midfielder, whose five goals and one assist in 24 MLS games didn’t justify his $519,000 salary. There’s no doubt Adu has the technical skill required to succeed. Everyone is still wondering whether he possesses the intangibles. There are no more excuses.

Jozy Altidore

Altidore’s fantastic run with AZ Alkmaar, for which he has scored 25 goals in 2012, didn’t translate to the national team. He was shut out last year and then dropped for the final two qualifiers in October. Klinsmann brought him back for the November exhibition in Russia and said, “There’s a whole ‘nother level or two levels waiting for Jozy if he starts to become a 24/7 (player).”

With 10 qualifiers on the schedule, those levels are there for the taking. Altidore, now 23 and in his eighth season as a pro, now knows precisely what Klinsmann expects. The stakes are high, and he must deliver in a U.S. jersey in 2013.

Benny Feilhaber

Sporting Kansas City is gambling that Feilhaber, who turns 28 on Jan. 19, can replace some of the grit offered by the departed Roger Espinoza and add the sort of incisive passing from central midfield that can help the reigning U.S. Open Cup champion score more goals.

Feilhaber never really caught on with the New England Revolution but now is playing for a far more talented team. SKC’s MLS Cup hopes might depend on whether the World Cup veteran can raise his game to match the club’s expectations.

Fans in Columbus

Only three MLS clubs have won more major trophies than Columbus, who missed the playoffs last season for the first time in five years (and by a single point). In addition to that tradition, the Crew boast MLS newcomer of the year Federico Higuaín and a suitable, soccer-specific stadium located just 3 miles from the Ohio Statehouse.

The Crew has said it needs more season-ticket holders, more corporate support and local investment to secure its long-term future. There are complicated cultural issues in Columbus, namely the perpetual primacy of an amateur football team affiliated with a local university, but there are enough soccer fans to ensure the Crew’s relevancy. The club averaged more than 17,500 fans per game 10 years ago but just 14,397 in 2012 and 12,185 the season before. A similar increase in 2013 would go long way toward helping Columbus cement its status as a major-league market.

Americans abroad at a crossroads

Stuart Holden hopes to play regularly for Bolton Wanderers for the first time in nearly two years. Brad Guzan and Eric Lichaj hope to avoid relegation with Aston Villa, and Fabian Johnson and Danny Williams look to do the same with TSG Hoffenheim.

Herculez Gomez is unsure about his future with Mexico’s Santos Laguna, Sacha Kljestan has been playing well enough with Belgium’s Anderlecht to deserve a look from clubs in bigger leagues and Michael Parkhurst is set to begin his German adventure with relegation threatened FC Augsburg.

Mikkel Diskerud, now in Norway, might be on the move to MLS. Terrence Boyd, with 10 goals for Rapid Vienna, must maintain consistency as a full-time senior professional.

All could be in or out of the U.S. lineup by the end of 2013, with Johnson the safest bet to remain. But Klinsmann won’t want his players competing at anything less than the optimal level a year before the World Cup. He’ll be watching them all closely, while fans around the U.S. will be expecting big things from him.